The Keeper
by Memories Faded
Summary: The Keeper. It wasn't a job that was handed out easily to just any man. But Sakura's job of taking care of said Keeper was no easy task either. AU. SuiSaku. Rating may change later
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer; I Do Not Own Naruto**

Chapter One

Reach

* * *

_The baby hummed in his sleep from where he lay nestled safely in his brother's arms. Innocent and completely unaware of the furious New England storm that raged on as he slept peacefully in a mess of blankets. His tiny fist came out to knead at the small boy's chest as the child stood staring at the man pulling out an old wooden rowboat down towards the angry waters._

_The boy watched in silent dismay with wide, bright eyes as his father finally settled the old boat as best as he could in the water. Even in the shallows the water was rough. The waves slapped against the tired wood with repetitive smacks so hard that he had to hold the boat steady with one leg as he reached over to grab the second oar and tuck it nicely into the remaining oarlock._

_The child's bottom lip quivered. He had not yet seen six winters, but just because he was young did not mean that he was stupid. The chances of making it to the mainland in dangerous weather such as this were little to none. He opened his mouth to protest again, taking a small step forward. But a large hand came from behind him to clasp his small shoulder and hold him still. He looked up at the other man looming over him in anguish. The coarse and hardened hand of his uncle gave him no comfort._

_The man smiled reassuringly from where he stood by the boat, "Don't you worry now son, I'll be back by the morning with medicine for your mother."_

_The child nodded weakly, but in his eyes all hope diminished, and tears fought to be let out. He struggled back the lump in his throat, clutching his baby brother tighter to him as one would clutch to a lifeline. His uncle's huge hand squeezed slightly on his shoulder._

_The man pushed off the rocky granite of the small island, jumped into the boat and began to row away. The waves crashed against the small vessel, he had to pull hard just to keep the boat on course._

_Terror filled the boy's eyes, he tore away from his uncle and ran closer toward the water to his departing father._

"_Papa! Don't go! Please don't go!"_

_The man's mouth became a grim line as he continued to row. Trying his best to ignore his distressed son._

"_Pa!" The boy shouted after him. "Papa, don't go!" He cried. "_Papa_!"_

_His protests were cut short by his uncle grabbing him roughly by the shoulders and pulling him away from the unsafe waters. The baby in his arms started to cry as he woke from his distraught brother's shouts. But over the water the departing man could no longer hear any of them through the storm._

_The boy stared wordlessly out the window at the endless storm. His mother's shallow breathing echoed loudly in his ears even though she was far in the next room. The baby was asleep once again in his arms, though he didn't notice._

_His face was wretched from crying, but he waited nonetheless for his father's return even as his feet grew numb from standing and his eyes grew heavy from hours of anticipation._

_He barely even registered that he still had his younger sibling in his arms until he looked down again to see the small bundle was awake. He smiled weakly at the baby, a pale hand came to caress the fluff of baby fuzz on his brother's head. The infant cooed happily, reaching with grasping hands to bring the older boy's fingers into his mouth._

_The kid's weak smile grew a little more._

"_Looks like it's going to be just you and me now to take care of Mom...._

* * *

Suigetsu's head shot up at the loud blast of a fog-cannon and cracked sharply against the wooden frame of the upper bunk bed. The teenager cursed loudly, rubbing a hand over the sore spot on his head and rubbing his eyes with the other. Moisture from the light shining directly onto his face burned as he intentionally rolled off the bottom bunk and searched for the trousers he had discarded somewhere on the floor the previous night.

"You up yet?" The deep voice of his uncle yelled from all the way across the house. "You better get your ass in gear boy, those goddamn birds ain't going to clean themselves!"

The sixteen year old growled low in his throat. He had been having a good sleep too. What was that dream again? He couldn't quite remember, but he'd been having that same damn dream ever since Mangetsu had left the house. Though every time he woke up it slipped away like water slipping through his cupped hands.

A sudden ripping sound coming from the fabric in his hands brought him back to earth and he swore viciously as he realized that he had just torn a decent sized gash through his trousers.

"Oh, fucking great." He grumbled, inspecting the worn gray material further to see if they were still wearable. It was only in the upper thigh portion, still suitable, but not something to be worn in front of company. He scoffed, when was the last time they had ever had company? If someone stopped by today while he was wearing these he'd eat his own hat.

Suigetsu blinked. Did he even _have_ a hat that was his own? He'd been born on this island, everything he'd ever worn was used or hand-me down. Thus, probably why his damn pants had ripped just now. He inwardly snarled at the thought that, from where he was now Mangetsu was probably getting new clothes, but he'd still through a tantrum of epic proportions if he found out Suigetsu ever used any of _his_ stuff. The jerk.

And wearing clothes from Kisame would probably only get him killed somehow. The giant fish-man's clothes barely fit _him_, but if Suigetsu ever wore them he'd be lost in a-- pardon the pun, _ocean_ of cloth material and probably end up in a loose-end related accident. Thanks-a-million.

"Pfff, stupid-ass expression..." The boy grumbled, finding with better luck an off-white shirt with both sleeves ripped off and buttoning it quickly up to the collar.

...

"You look swell." His uncle remarked dryly as he walked heavily into the stale kitchen.

"Shut up." He grunted, shifting past the huge man to pour himself a cup of some of the banal tasting coffee, grimacing as he did so. Tanner the seagull chirped a morning greeting from his perch on one of the top kitchen shelves.

As he turned to sit at the worn-down wooden table he had to choke back an abrupt fit of laughter as he suddenly noticed that the older man was dressed in a pale apron with a rusted spatula in hand. The sight was made even more comical at the fact that, not only did the apron not fit on him (It was being held on by a spare peace of yarn) But it was covered in what looked like it had once been eggs.

Kisame gave him a dark look. "Don't think I didn't hear that boy."

He snickered notably this time. Ignoring Tanner as he hopped down from his perch and demanded attention. "What did you fail at cooking _again_?"

Well his uncle still earned some brownie points from his side for at least _trying_ to cook something for them.

The man ignored him. "You just wait, you ungratefully little twerp. I already sent another request. When we finally get a hired lady to work here I'll go back to lobsterin' and kicking your ass on a daily basis."

Suigetsu snorted "Yeah right, old man. What kind of woman would ever want to live here anyway?"

He was right too. Mangetsu had been the only one who knew how to cook, now that he was gone the already greasy house had only become filthier. Neither of them ever dared to touch any of the household supplies that Suigetsu's mother used. It was taboo just to _think_ about going through her old things. Like defacing a sacred monument.

Kisame noticed his sore expression, but didn't say anything. Instead he gibed the boy right back when he noticed the ample rip in his leg.

"Nice pants." He chuckled with a shark-like grin.

"Shove off, old man." Suigetsu muttered, taking another sip of coffee.

"Here" The man grunted, handing the teenager a large metal pail that seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere. "And after this you'll have_ real_ work to do today."

Oh, right. That's _just_ how he wanted to spend his Sunday morning, shoveling dead birds off of a seventy-fucking-two-foot fucking tower. Tanner cawed and hopped back onto his perch. Had he been able to hold human expressions Suigetsu suspected he would be glaring at him at that moment.

Suigetsu didn't bother stalling this time, he dumped the rest of the unpleasant coffee into the basin that they called a sink, and strode out of the house as if going into battle.

....

One hundred and eighty-nine steps. One hundred and eighty-nine step up a seventy-fucking-two foot fucking tower that just so happened to be the place where both Suigetsu and his remaining family guardian spent their days working. And sure enough, one hundred and eighty-nine steps later, a group of dead birds lay in scattered in grotesque piles of bone and feathers at the very top of the tower.

The morning had been foggy at first, thus explaining his unpleasant wake-up call, which meant that the night must have been foggy too. Seagulls were, by nature, attracted to shiny things like a magnet. Foggy nights mixed with the bright flare from the lighthouse were a recipe for dead birds.

With a grunt, Suigetsu sat down and picked up the nearest bird, which was probably only a year or two old. After inspecting it for a moment, he decided it was way too skinny and threw it easily over the edge. The second however, was a bit larger, and defiantly had more meat on it. That one he scooped into the pail. The limp thing hadn't gone into rigor mortis yet. It would probably have enough meat on it for supper if Kisame wasn't too hungry today...

The boy snorted, and to think, not even five years ago it was extremely off limits just to climb up the lighthouse. Now he was up here picking through which dead birds were big enough to be _eaten _later.

Suigetsu smiled fondly at just how sacrilegious it had been for he and his brother when they were children to play up in the lighthouse without permission. No, they might put a fingerprint on the lens or something. Can't do that.

He recalled one of times they had climbed the lighthouse without telling Kisame and had both caught, earning themselves the longest bellowed lecture of the century.

Oh course, he still wasn't technically allowed to go anywhere near the lens. He was sixteen, by society's standards not yet a man, and children were strictly prohibited by the lighthouse officials. But he was still probably better off dealing with the machine than Kisame on most days. If he was caught though, there was a very good chance that they both could lose their job and their house.

Losing the job wouldn't mean the end of the world for the two males. Across the reach there was a booming young town filled with good jobs. Some even paid better than the one they had now. No, the real loss would be the house that they lived in, which, was the only real thing of significant value for any of them. Both boys had been born and raised together in the house. Their mother had died in the house. The six bedroom family home had only been a small shack when the family had first arrived. Kisame and his brother and law, Suigetsu and Mangetsu's father, had put their hearts and souls into building it for their family.

Yes, losing the house would be the worst and most bitter loss for any of them.

Recently the pay for working at the lighthouse had been cut in half. Shortly after that, taxes to rent the land that they lived on had started up. The savings the family had made to send the boys to school was drained away. Leaving the three distraught at the fact that if they didn't find an alternative means of income they would be forced to leave the land their house was built on.

Six months ago the elder brother, Mangetsu, had taken a well-paying job deep-sea fishing. It would take him very far away from the island where they lived, into the dangerous and frigid waters of the North Atlantic. Suigetsu had protested bitterly against it.

But soon after he left and the pay he earned started coming in, slowly but surely the family savings began to build up again. Mangetsu did all he could to leave his family financially secure and give his younger brother a chance to go to a proper school. Nonetheless, Suigetsu was extremely angry and resentful about the fact that Mangetsu had been forced to leave. And would like nothing more than to wring the neck of the man who had forced the taxes upon them.

Hiring a maid of any sort was not something that they could really afford. But Kisame and Suigetsu had enough to worry about with the long tiring hours they spend outside and on the ocean. Day-to-day tasks such as cooking and cleaning didn't fit in with their already packed schedule.

There were only three more birds after the large second one, he kept the two that looked the largest and chucked the last over the edge as well. Sitting up and booting left over feathers and whatnot over the edge as last-minute clean-up.

Suigetsu's eyes narrowed as he suddenly spotted something in the distance. It was what looked faintly like a merchant ship, which was odd, because they weren't due for a new delivery of fuel for another nine months. And if there was another such delivery surely Kisame would have told him.

It was faint but even from that distance his sharp eyes could still spot the tiny rowboat heading towards their island.

Well, he scowled, it looked like he'd have to find a hat to eat.

* * *

The island was just a speck of land in her line of sight from where she stood against the rail of the small ship. But as it came closer into view, Sakura felt a pit of dread fill her heart.

She inhaled the sea-salt air and frowned. Her pink hair obscured her sad face as she gazed down at the dark slate gray waves of the ocean. There was no way she'd ever get used to this place. She didn't even know how to swim.

A severe epidemic had broken out in her home state of Philadelphia. Spreading like wildfire in dry wood, killing thousands, including her parents, without any sign of letting up soon. The stress of becoming an orphan combined with leaving everything that she knew and loved behind her to live with her only remaining family was only made worse when her desperate grandmother Tsunade sent her alone to the northern state of Massachusetts.

Apparently there was a man working at a lighthouse who was in great need of housekeeper. Or at least, that was what the job description had said.

Prior to her sudden departure Sakura had worked as a chambermaid for about half a dozen or so different residencies. Helping her parents by working for different people had been something she had grown up into. Housekeeping had become like a second nature. Despite that fact, Sakura was not looking forward to it. Not one bit. But the idea of some extra money she might be able to send back home to help support funding for vaccinations _and_ extra money to help her friends and neighbors was a much better option than living in an orphanage.

She wordlessly returned to the lower quarters to pick up her belongings-- only two suitcases full of her belongings. Clothes in one case, keepsakes and other basic necessities in the other. Everything else had gone into donation-- and traveled up to the deck to where a man was preparing a small rowboat two take her across the reach to the island.

The island was almost two miles away. But the captain did not dare get any closer.

That was okay though. From here she could easy dip her fingers into the cold water, while she had only been able to look down at it from on the ship. She shivered lightly at first at how freezing it was, but was unable to hold back a small smile as her fingers glided smoothly through the water due to the moving boat. Maybe, maybe there was the slightest chance that she could get used to this place after all...

"Miss, keep your hands 'n the boat please." The oarsman growled in a thick northern accent.

Sakura sighed, returning her hand back onto her lap.

Who was she kidding? She'd never get used to this place.

* * *

Suigetsu knew exactly what to expect as he climbed down the stairs to solid ground. And sure enough, Kisame stood there against the wall with a smug I-told-you-so grin on his older sharkish face.

Resisting the urge to deck his uncle in the head-- as that would no doubt get him into major trouble later.

Suigetsu turned his attention toward the east side of the island, where the boat was finally coming into full view. Conforming that indeed, there was a woman in there and not just a random visitor.

Suigetsu trotted behind Kisame to the 'beach' which actually was only about a foot of space between the ocean and shore, covered in sharp rocks, broken shells and bit of seaweed. the young woman who stepped onto the old dock, took one look at him and said something that defiantly took shitty first impressions to a whole new level.

"Nice pants."

He glared darkly. Oh no, there was _no way _he'd ever eat _any_ type of hat over this rude little harlot.

"Welcome to Kiri Point, I take it that you're here to work following my request."

She nodded, at least the smile she gave looked genuine. But the polite demeanor and the pink hair weren't adding up in Suigetsu's opinion. She offered a small hand to shake out to his uncle. "Thank you, my name is Sakura Haruno."

Kisame accepted her handshake gladly. "My name is Kisame Hoshigaki. Keeper of the lighthouse on this island. This is Suigetsu Houzuki, my nephew."

The girl blinked for a moment, seemingly lost as she stared at them both. Kisame looked at her suspiciously. "There something wrong?"

Her eyes widened, hands coming up in a defensive gesture "No! No! It's just w-well you two look nothing alike."

Kisame threw his head back and gave a hearty laugh, sounding relieved much more than amused. "Yeah, we get that quite a lot from strangers."

"Mr. Hogashi" Suigetsu spoke to the retreating boatman. "Do you need a hand?"

The man turned and gave him what looked like it was supposed to be a grin, but appeared more like a very unnatural upturn of the lips. "That's alright son. I've spent twice as many years in a boat than you've spent on solid ground."

"You're sure?" He took a step forward in the man's direction. But the geezer shrugged him off.

"Don't worry now, leave me and my old bones a little pride. If I need help gettin' into the water at this age then I shouldn't even be livin'."

Suigetsu frowned, that was a bit harsh. But the old man did have a very inflated ego when it came to fishing. _Every_ fisherman in this area did. So he didn't dare to push it.

"I'll tell my girl you said 'Hello' for yah." He shouted back once he finally pushed off. Suigetsu smiled broadly. "Thank you sir!"

It sounded distantly like the old man cackled at him, but then he was moving out of sight.

Suigetsu's smile faded a little. It had been so long since he had seen any of his friends on the mainland. Not that he really had many friends. The closest person to him had always been his brother...

He felt a pair of heavy eyes on him and turned back to look at his uncle. Kisame gave him a stern gaze, eyes shifting to the girl and back to him. Suigetsu smirked.

"Come on Miss." He grinned at her, picking her bags up in a gentlemanly fashion. "I'll give you the _grand tour_."

...

He couldn't help but smirk at her reaction to the condition of the room. It was covered completely in dust, not that it had been all that great years ago when the house was first built. No one bothered finding any real use for it.

"We get up at dawn. At this time of year that's usually five to five forty-five. We haven't had a decent meal since..." he paused, _since Mangetsu left_, he almost blurted. "Since neither of us know how to cook. But that's what we hired you for right?"

Sakura nodded. It was only noon. She could probably get started on cleaning up her new 'room', before inspecting the condition of the kitchen.

"Right well, I have work to get to." He gave a half-hearted wave and strolled out. Sakura scowled at the amount of humor left in his voice after her first reaction, and had to restrain herself from chucking something large at his head.

She sighed and turned her attention to the room.

"Here we go." She said.

* * *

And here we go. The beginning of my new story is finally out.

The name of the boatman was purely made up. But it might be a bit more significant later on.

Sorry to any of you waiting on an update on _Discrepancy_. I'm having a bit of trouble on that one, I know what I want to write but not how to write it. So updates might be a bit slower than this one. But to all you egg-head perves out there, don't worry, you'll get your lemons fair and square.


	2. Chapter 2

Dust, dust everywhere. Dammit, she hated dust!

Dust in the bedsheets, dust on the curtains, dust in the rug, dust on every surface of the room, dust in her eyes as she shook out the dust in the heavy quilted blanket that was on the dusty bed.

She coughed and rubbed at her watering eyes, ultimately giving up on beating out the filth that was stuck in the blanket. She couldn't do it here in this dusty bedroom, not now. It'd only make the room messier.

Everything would have to be cleaned. Not only that, but she had to clean _their_ rooms too, which would take up way too much time after she had glimpsed the state they were already in. But not starting on something would make her look like a very bad housekeeper.

So she formed out a plan that more than likely would take up all of the day and most of the day after. It was still only noon, but the long trip and ride to the island was a lot to stomach for today. Not to mention that crappy first impression she gave.

But she couldn't resist, it was almost as if he was _presenting_ her with the opportunity to humiliate him. Though she was the only stranger there and the other two men had seemed completely un-fazed by it. They had both probably worked for much longer and much harder than the boy had, and were familiar with wearing torn clothes. Sakura on the other hand, almost _never_ saw _anyone_ dressed indecently from where she grew up. It was too good an opportunity and too much of a temptation.

Sakura took the time to swiftly change into better work clothes and fold her previous outfit away. She wanted to leave her bags somewhere far, far away from this dusty room. But sadly, there wasn't any place else that was much cleaner.

There was no water supply that could just be easily wasted on washing clothes. It was probable that neither of the two used it to wash in either. They were probably primitive enough to bathe in the ocean. She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, but when there wasn't much of something, sometimes you just had to make do with what you had. That was one of the first and hardest lessons she learned in life.

It didn't take a long search through the house for her to find what she needed. A heavy metal tub and a spare bundle of kindling to burn in order to heat water up. But she wasn't so lucky in bringing out outside, it was much more heavy than it looked and she barely avoided dropping it on her feet on more than one occasion before she finally got it where she needed it.

She had to find a space with no grass on it in order to build up a fire pit. It took her another twelve minutes to go back into the house with another, thankfully smaller and less heavy bucket, a shovel, and as much dirty cloth as she could find. Which was a lot.

Then she brought out a spare rope, that look distantly like it had once belonged on a ship, and tied it extra tightly to a pair of trees that weren't too far apart.

_Seriously_, if she had to do all of this from scratch, she could only guess at how they had washed their clothes before.

After a fire pit was dug, a small flame started and a dozen or so trips to the beach to fill up several buckets of freezing sea-water, enough was finally made to fill the tub. But by the time she was finished, the water had turned lukewarm from the chilly weather, even though it was spring. She unwrapped her own bar of soap and frowned. It was her only bar. But perhaps she could get more later on...

Sakura first dumped in the blanket that had been on her bed, along with a few other scraps that had been on Kisame's and Suigetsu's beds. She would really need to sew those in the near future. It took the best of half an hour to finally work all the nastiness from all the fabrics, and another ten wringing out the water and hanging them up in the make-shift clothes-line.

After her labors were finally over, Sakura realized that there was still much more to do. The rest of the sheets were not clean, nor were the clothes. And to her dismay she realized that the water was too dirty to continue washing which meant she would need to boil more buckets.

She bit her lip to stop the tears forming in her eyes. She had already worked so hard. Her arm and back muscles ached from the strain of carrying the tub and buckets of water, and her fingers felt raw and numb from the mix of scrubbing and drying off in the cold air.

She clenched her hurting hands and stood up, she still had work to do and sitting around and crying wouldn't get her anywhere.

With firm arms she dumped the water out and marched down to the beach with arms clenched around the empty bucket.

...

Five hours later, at sunset, Sakura was not yet finished with the last of the laundry.

She couldn't believe it. After all this time, pushing her limbs onward even though they felt like dead weights, how could she _still_ not be done!?

She glared at the remaining sheets with malice, grabbed a nearby charred stick, and hit the pile as hard as she could. Resulting in only leaving a few dusty bits of burnt wood behind on an unfeeling, still-dirty pile, that was now slightly flattened a little at the top.

She scowled at the laundry, feeling only slightly less frustrated. The laundry remained motionless.

"You know, if beating the clothes made the job any easier, I'm sure me and Suigetsu could've done it ourselves." A deep voice spoke from behind her.

She jumped in surprise and whirled around to face Kisame. He wore a wide grin which grew only wider at her reaction. She felt a hot blush burn her whole face at the guilt of being caught.

"M-Mr. Hoshigaki! I'm sorry, I was just uh.." She fumbled with the right words, shifting nervously on her feet.

He laughed at her flustered expression, "Kisame."

She blinked. "What?"

"Call me Kisame" he clarified.

"Oh," She smiled softly, "Okay."

Kisame shifted past her and reached for a stick on the ground. She opened her mouth to ask what he was doing but he beat her to it.

"We're eatin' outside tonight." He said with a wide grin, pulling up a line of fish that he must have caught while out on the water that afternoon.

She sat in silent wonder as he sliced the fish. She had eaten fish before-- but she had never actually seen fish being prepared.

The other teenager approached them from behind, observing for a moment and asking. "Fish tonight, eh Kisame?"

Sakura jumped, realizing that the teenager was behind her.

"Suigetsu, go help Miss. Haruno finish her work." Kisame ordered from his spot where he was skinning the fish without looking away from his work. Suigetsu tch'ed. But didn't protest other than that.

She was about to warn him about the heavy tub, that they would need to fill buckets up to fill it because it was much too heavy to carry, when he shocked her by easily lifting the tub, dumping it of it's dirty contents and bringing it down to the beach.

She stood open-mouthed for a moment.

"If you stay like that you might catch flies." Kisame's amused laugh called, breaking her out of her trance."

She scowled slightly, reluctantly following after him.

...

When the two weren't talking to each other, they worked as a pretty good team.

Suigetsu obviously didn't know what he was doing exactly, but all she'd have to do was give him directions and he'd get it right the very first time. He was very mindful of his tasks, and very observant. Sakura couldn't help feeling impressed.

Striking up conversation however, was a bad idea waiting to happen.

"You've done this before haven't you?"

"No."

"Then how are you so good at it? Even I've never been able to learn _that_ quickly."

"Maybe you're just bad at it."

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me right."

"Well I apologize for being raised in a civil society and wasting some of my life in public schools instead of working."

He stopped and gave her a cold glare. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hey, if you two brats don't stop yappin' and don't start workin' then I'm eatin' your damn fish for you!" Kisame bellowed at them.

So they returned to work. Suigetsu went inside and got a set of wicker baskets for Sakura to place everything in. Sakura took down the dry laundry and nicely folded everything. And together they both hung up the last of the wet cloth to dry over-night.

When they returned to Kisame he had already finished the food, wrapping up pieces of fish into bits of seaweed and cooking them over the fire pit that Sakura had made earlier.

She couldn't help but feel as though she had never truly tasted fish until then. The seaweed held in all of the natural flavors and added in extra sea salt from the ocean, intensifying the taste even more.

Kisame was so wonderful at cooking them too, never once did she have to spit out an extra bone or a bad piece of meat.

The taste itself was hard to explain. Like trying to describe the color red to a person who was born blind. It was a pleasant sort of salty with the district taste of white meat in the back. Mouth-watering and wholly delicious. She had never even known that she _had_ a taste for fish.

She felt full and warm by the time she was doing eating, all negative emotions drained away and replaced with a happy content. "Thank you for that lovely meal Mr. Kisame." Her politeness was no doubt fueled by her full stomach. "I'll take care of the laundry, and retire for the evening. Good-night both of you."

She turned to the baskets, somehow managing to juggle them all in her arms and carry them into the house, feeling quite happy with herself.

"You purposely got fish didn't you?" Suigetsu whispered as soon as she was out of earshot.

"Yeah," Kisame admitted casually with a small shrug. "I'm not so cruel as to let her face the kitchen just yet." He grinned at the teenager. "It's a nightmare."

...

She slipped into the sheets, burying herself snuggly into her bed, peeking her head out to prop onto her pillow. She inhaled the new scent her bed, which was now _much_ better than the smell of ancient mothballs that it had before. The sheets themselves smelled like a cool Atlantic breeze, and if she closed her eyes, she could even see the way the sheets had shifted in the outside wind.

Sakura smiled, it was only her first night here. The rest of her room was still smelly. She was sore, aching, sweaty and dirty but why should she even care? Now that her sheets were warm from her body heat and her mind was as exhausted as her body and her fingers felt like torture, she could still finally have a good night's sleep without any lingering thoughts about her parents or Tsunade.

* * *

Sakura's jaw dropped in shock at the sight before her. The whole kitchen was littered with greasy plates and uncleaned silverware. Dishes were piled on top of each other in what looked like it should be impossibly high stacks. White clumps that looked suspiciously like bird droppings also were scattered in separate areas-- some such areas included the uncleaned dishes. Half eaten food was crusted dry on some plates, while still-full cups sat useless in various places.

It was just like something out of a horror story!

Sakura whimpered. They actually expected her to clean this? By the end of the day?

Out of nowhere, a seagull landed on the table beside her. Greeting her with a loud caw.

Sakura let out an ungraceful squeak in surprise, stumbled over something—most likely more dishes-- and fell hard on her rear.

Okay, this wasn't exactly how she had pictured her morning starting off...

Standing up and rubbing her aching backside, she frowned as she spotted a bucket of foamy water in the near corner. Dipping a finger into it, she realized that it was still lukewarm. They must not have left that long ago.

She knew what Tsunade would say if she could see her now in this sad position.

_'Haruno's never give up Sakura, you can count on that. Haruno's _never_ give up. So don't let our family down, I believe in you.'_

Sakura sighed, cursing her one remaining family member for becoming the unwanted inspiration she needed to force herself onward despite all of the still-recent sores all over her body. Then she steeled her will, pulled up both sleeves and dove into work.

* * *

Okay, I've written much more than this. But if I don't separate it like,_ right now_, my brain is going to explode.

....

I love fish


End file.
